By Sanjiv Kanwar
Agricultural productivity has increased by leaps and bounds since the birth of agriculture and over the past century as well. Today, in some developed countries, just 1 per cent of the population grows enough food to feed the remaining 99 per cent. Yet if the world is to grow enough food to feed the world’s growing population, agricultural productivity must increase further.
Today there are approximately 8 billion people in the world and by 2050, this number is expected to grow to 9.7 billion. To grow food for nearly 2 billion more people demands significant innovation in agriculture, especially as – because of climate change – there will be less arable land in the decades ahead. There are other challenges as well. In some parts of the world, famine is rearing its ugly head. The war in Europe has disrupted the supply of grain to many countries. Until recently, some such relatively prosperous countries believed they would never face famine.
In short, in the decades ahead, farmers will have to do more with less if they’re to feed the world.
Against the backdrop of the world’s surging population, the challenge posed by climate change, and famine caused by war, farmers in India continue to grow crops as they’ve done for centuries – without incorporating modern farming practices. As a result, the Indian farming sector’s productivity remains very low. However, should some new technologies be used by Indian farmers, their farms’ output will increase appreciably.
Until recently, many new technologies were prohibitively expensive for small Indian farmers, but a new one – generative AI- is not only affordable but also easy to use. Used right, generative AI can bring essential government services with easy reach of all Indian farmers, make the Indian agricultural sector.
That’s because developers have trained GPT-powered generative AI on all Government of India documents and linked the generative AI to speech software. Hence, the bot has access to all the GOI documents, can make changes to them when necessary, and can voice an appropriate response in any Indian language.
Generative AI also has a part to play in a farmers’ field.
Generative AI in Farmers’ Fields
Generative AI can increase the productivity of the Indian agricultural sector. For instance, farmers can use Generative AI’s predictive capability to analyze soil quality in real-time. With such insights about soil quality, farmers can better plan their activities. In addition, using AI the government can study weather patterns and then provide real time information/advise to farmers. Doing so will help improve NUE, water use efficiency, and reduce the amount of agri-inputs needed to grow crops – in short, reduce the overall cost of farming.
generative AI can help predict weather patterns more accurately and offer farmers insights into their crops’ health.
Farmers that use generative AI can gain the insights they need to make informed decisions, allocate resources optimally, and increase crop yields.
Bringing Data-Driven Insights into Farmers’ Fields
Farmers can deploy AI-powered drones in their fields to collect granular data such as crops’ health, the number of pests in the fields, and the number of diseased crops. The drones can relay such information to farmers. Farmers can then use precision agriculture to improve crops’ health, eliminate pest and cure diseased crops. Also, should a farmer not know how to treat a plant, he can upload its pictures to a generative AI-powered platform, and it will share an appropriate treatment.
Perhaps most excitingly, generative AI can reduce the time it takes to create new crop varieties.
Generative AI in better price realization for farmers
On the market access side, only 6 per cent of the farmers in India get benefits of selling their produce at Minimum Selling Prices (MSP). However, using AI can get predictive crop yields as well as prices through effective price discovery model thus enabling an informed decision to be made on the ground. AI can actually help the farmers move towards demand driven agriculture rather than supply driven agriculture. In other words, market intelligence and predictive prices will help the farmers to decide on the calibrating the crop yield as well as investment.
Demystify Technology
Today, just 1% of Indian farmers utilize agri-tech tools. One reason so few farmers use digital technologies is that farmers are unable to comprehend such technologies. Generative AI, which can communicate with farmers in their native language, has the potential to sharply increase the number of Indian farmers who use digital tools. In short, generative AI can bring the most cutting-edge digital technology in the world to the most backward agricultural field in rural India!
These are just a few ways generative AI can transform Indian agriculture. While it won’t drastically reduce the number of Indians employed in farming, it will help those who farm increase their yields, grow healthier and more nutritious crops, and earn more than before.
While the possibilities that generative AI opens for Indian farmers are significant, it’s not yet a given that Indian farmers will incorporate this technology into their farming practices.
Challenges to Generative AI in Indian Agriculture
For Indian farmers to use generative AI, they’ll need internet connectivity. In some instances, they may need internet connectivity in their fields. However, such connectivity is far from ubiquitous in India. While 5G is being rolled out in India, many parts of the country – particularly rural areas – still don’t have basic internet connectivity.
Lack of internet connectivity isn’t the only roadblock. Many Indian farmers harbour a deep mistrust of those who promise them increased yields with minimum effort. Convincing farmers that generative AI is a force for good will be challenging. It will also be challenging to convince millions of Indian farmers who are illiterate and intimidated by technology to adopt generative AI into day-to-day farming practices.
Finally, the elephant in the room. The cost of using generative AI may be well beyond what most small landholding farmers can afford.
Overcoming these challenges
The government has a long-term vision to bring internet connectivity to every corner of India. Robust steps to realize this vision have been taken. Hence – though will take some time – eventually every corner of India is expected to have internet connectivity.
To build trust with farmers, help can come from the numerous farming centres which are operated by private entities in rural areas. At these centres, farmers from surrounding areas learn about the latest farming practices. Such centres can help make farmers more receptive to adopting generative AI in their farming practices. Also, the over 3,000 farming startups in India will continue to play a part in acquainting Indian farmers with the latest farming practices. Many of these startups are developing technology-based farming solutions that Indian farmers can afford.
In addition, help is coming from leading crop solutions companies, including Yara. Yara has an easy-to-use app that provides farmers with vital information. The app provides farmers with real-time weather updates, and the price of crops in certain markets, in addition to calculating the precise amount of fertilizer required in a certain field to grow a particular crop. Such apps make farmers more productive.
In conclusion, though the use of generative AI by Indian farmers will take some time, all things being equal, Indian farmers will benefit from this technology sooner rather than later, and certainly sooner than they feel the full force of the Industrial Revolution!
The author is the Managing Director of Yara South Asia
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